Bellator: Multiple title fights planned for 'Rampage'-Ortiz PPV

With Bellator MMA’s first pay-per-view venture featuring a pair of headliners who never have fought for the promotion before, its champions apparently don’t need to worry about being left out in the cold.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney on Monday said the plan is for the promotion to stack much the rest of the main card of its first pay-per-view with title fights.

Bellator 106 is set for Nov. 2 at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif., and will be headlined by former UFC light heavyweight champions Quinton Jackson (32-11 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and Tito Ortiz (16-11-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA). Ortiz’s signing with the promotion just was announced this past week when he was introduced in the cage by “Rampage,” who was on hand at Bellator 97 to make the special announcement about the fight.

Jackson fought most recently in the UFC and dropped a decision to Glover Teixeira, his third straight loss. Ortiz retired following his loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 148 in July 2012, also his third straight setback and seventh loss in nine fights.

Rebney, as part of a media call in support of the company’s inaugural pay-per-view, said he isn’t worried about “Rampage” and Ortiz stealing the spotlight from longstanding Bellator champions like Pat Curran, Michael Chandler and Ben Askren, the latter two of which just defended their titles in dominant fashion at Bellator 97.

“These guys stole some of the limelight, but it’s limelight nonetheless,” Rebney said. “And it’s all part of a bigger machine and a bigger puzzle.”

That bigger picture, Rebney said, is likely to include champs like Chandler, the lightweight titleholder, and Curran, who holds the featherweight belt, on the pay-per-view. Curran defended his title at Bellator 95 in April against Shanbulat Shamhalaev and is waiting on a fight with tournament winner Daniel Straus. Chandler took out David Rickels in just 44 seconds this past Wednesday. And Askren got a fourth-round TKO of Andrey Koreshkov in the co-main event on the same card.

All should be ready to go by Nov. 2 without issue. And Rebney believes if that happens, he can turn those fighters into bigger stars.

“The good news about this is, we’re going to have (Jackson and Ortiz) on Nov. 2 headlining a pay-per-view and if everything works out the way I’m hoping, you’re going to see Chandler on that same pay-per-view – and we’re going to give him an amazing platform,” Rebney said. “The buzz is, is he top three? Is he top two? Where does he fit into the equation? I know where he fits into the equation, but now you put him on a card with ‘Rampage,’ you put him on a card with Tito, suddenly you get people looking at him in a completely different light.”

Rebney said the cost of the pay-per-view will be determined by individual cable and satellite providers, but is likely to start at $35, going up as high as $45.

And that price, he believes, will be seen in the final product.

“We’re going to have a lot of title fights on this show,” he said. “It will be along pay-per-view because we’re going to have some big title fights on this show. Obviously Curran’s got a couple defenses in the book right now. Chandler looked unbelievable. There’s a lot of meat on the bone in terms of title fights right now. … There will be a lot of world-title fights on that show – a lot of five-(round) fights on that show.”

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